Don Sisk: Now, let’s go back to 2 Corinthians chapter 11 for just a minute. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. And notice some of the things that Paul went through, okay?

He was always having to defend his apostleship. Even though he was not one of the original 12 apostles, he was an apostle. But he was always having to defend that, okay?

And so in this chapter, he’s doing that. And he’s talking about comparing himself with others and so forth. And are they ministers of Christ?

I speak as a fool, I’m more. In laboring, more abundant in stripes above measure. In prison, more frequent in death.

Oft. Of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, save one. Think about that.

He was scourged five different times. Now, many people would die from being scourged one time. Okay?

Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwreck.

A night and a day I have been in the deep. In journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by my own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness. In other words, he was just in all kinds of problems.

But after all that, after going through all of that, he could look back over it and say, I’m sure thankful that God counted me faithful in putting me in the ministry. So let me give you a personal testimony. I was born on May the 30th, 1933.

Now, I know you’re a great mathematician, so you’ve already figured it out. And you’ve said, okay, brother, sis, you’re 87 years old. I can’t believe you’re 87.

You look 107, okay? Okay. When I was born in May the 30th, 1933, I was born into abject poverty.

I mean, poverty that you will probably never have any idea about, okay? For instance, we, in 1933 when I was born, we had no electricity. We had no telephones.

We had to watch television in the dark, okay? Okay. There was no television.

There was no radio. there was no automobiles I mean a few rich people had automobiles but not us and my dad was a coal miner and he worked for nearly nothing back in those days coal miners very difficult work and so for the first 15 years of my life I had very little spiritual insight into anything my dad was a hard worker, but he also drank a good bit,

which made life miserable at home. But my life changed in 1949 when one Monday morning in geometry class, Bill Welch said to me, he said, Don, Saturday night we are having a youth for Christ. meeting, and he told me where it was.

And he said, I wish you would be my guest. And Bill was a very good friend of mine, so I wanted to do what Bill asked me to do. And so I promised Bill, I said, okay, Bill, I’ll go with you.

I mean, after all, there’s no money, there’s no way to do anything else. I mean, I’m not going to be doing anything else there tonight for sure, so I’ll go with you to the youth meeting. And then I got to thinking about it, Youth for Christ.

And I knew that Bill was a Christian. And I thought, okay, youth, I can qualify there. I’m 15, 16.

But I’m not a Christian. So I began to look for excuses not to go. But for some reason or another, I just could not come up with a good excuse.

And then it has to be the Holy Spirit of God. By the way, he directs everything, amen. And Saturday morning when I woke up, I never will forget, I got to thinking, I don’t have any hope.

The family is poor. It’s all kind of dysfunctional. And I thought, I need to be saved.

Now, I’ve been to church a few times. We’d never gone to church regularly. But I had been to a vacation Bible school.

I remember that. And that was a great experience. I’d been to a revival meeting, and I heard an old-fashioned Methodist preacher preach on the vicarious suffering of Jesus Christ.

And that stuck with me all of those years. And I knew that I was a sinner, and I knew if I died in my sin, I’d go to hell. But I knew nothing about anything else.

And so that morning I thought, I am going to church tonight, okay? And whatever they do when they give that invitation, I’m going to do it. I didn’t know what they did.

And I just thought, whatever they do when they do that, I’m going to do that. In other words, I went to church to get saved. And I have no idea who preached.

I have no idea what he preached about. I just wanted him to quit preaching so I could go forward. And guess what?

Eventually, he, like all preachers, did finish, okay? And they gave an invitation. And I went forward and I said to him, I need to trust Christ as my Savior.

And there was a Baptist preacher in that meeting that followed me down the aisle, Gifford Berry. And Gifford took the Bible, God’s Word, and showed me what I already knew, mostly, okay? He showed me, number one, that I was a sinner and that if I died in my sin, I would spend eternity separated from God.

I knew that. And then he showed me the good news, But he said, but Jesus Christ, God’s Son, left heaven in all of its glory, came to this earth and suffered and bled and died for sinners so we as sinners could be saved. And that night I bowed my head and asked Jesus Christ to be my Savior.

And that was the beginning of everything new. I got up from the prayer meeting, or the prayer that day, that night, and I did not feel any liquid love running up and down my spine. I didn’t see any lights flashing.

But I had a peace that I’d never known in my life, all my life. And I never will forget people coming by and shaking hands with me and so on and so forth. And I evidently had shown some real joy in being saved.

But one old man came by and he said, Son, if you can just keep what you got tonight, you’ll be all right. I didn’t know whether I could keep it or not, okay? All I knew was I trusted Christ as my Savior.

And I often thought that Saturday night, the third Saturday night in October in 1949, I went to church on my way to hell. And I went home on my way to heaven. I mean, you know, that’s a great change, amen.

I went to church that night with physical life, but when I went to church that night, I had no spiritual life at all. I was dead spiritually. But I went home not only with physical life, but with spiritual life.

And that began to manifest itself immediately. Sunday morning when I woke up the first thought I had was I better go to church that was an unusual thought for me you know I better play basketball I better go swimming I better go hiking I better do this I better do that I better go to church and I went to church on Sunday morning and to my surprise church had changed

it was interesting the singing was interesting even the preaching was interesting okay And in reality, the church had not changed. I had changed, okay? Monday morning when I went to school, several classmates told me that they had been praying for me.

I did not know that. But they rejoiced with me in the fact that I had trusted Christ as my Savior. And I never will forget geometry class again Monday morning.

And it was one of my favorite subjects. But that morning, I knew every question that Mrs. Gladys asked about geometry.

And I never will forget her saying, Don, you seem to be extremely bright this morning. And I thought, wow, getting saved makes you smarter. Anyway, it was the beginning of my new life.

And let me turn with you to one other passage in the Bible, and we’re going to think about for just a few minutes, okay? In the 24th chapter of the book of Genesis, I’m not going to read a lot of verses because you know many of them, but you’ll remember the story here. Abraham has a son by the name of Isaac, and Abraham is going to send his servant, Eliezer,

back to his hometown to get a wife for Isaac. Now, I’m sure that most of you fellows would not necessarily approve of that way of choosing your bride, amen? Your dad choosing for you, okay?

But it works pretty good a lot of times, okay? Anyway, Eliezer listened to his master Abraham. If we’re going to live a successful Christian life, if we’re going to be used of God, we’ve got to listen to our master, and that’s God.

And that’s in his word, the Bible. So Eliezer listened to Abraham, and then he obeyed Abraham. He said, now, I want you to go back to my home country.

I want you to choose a wife for Isaac from my home country. okay and by the way he gave him all kind of things he gave him ten camels and all kind of materials everything and so Eliezer listened to his master then he went where his master told him to go he did what his master told him to do and while he was going he got near the hometown

and he stopped and he began to think I don’t have any idea how in the world I’m supposed to choose one woman to be the wife for Isaac. You know. So guess what he did?

He prayed. And it was a very specific prayer. You know, sometimes we pray, Dear God, bless all the world.

God, bless all the missionaries. Pretty so general, we don’t ever know if God answers our prayer or not. But he prayed a very specific prayer.

and this was his prayer, okay he said, now Lord, when I get over there I won’t know which of these girls to choose and so here’s what I’d like for you to do when I get there and I go to the well where they’re drawing water and I say to one of the girls would you give me a drink of water that she’ll say, sure, I’ll give you a drink of water

and while you’re drinking I will draw water for your camels. Now that was a very specific prayer, okay. By the way, back in those days, girls, drawing water did not mean turning on the faucet, okay.

It meant putting the bucket down in the well time after time after time. And he had 10 camels, and they say a camel can drink about 40 gallons of water. So you imagine 10 camels, 400 gallons of water.

That was not an easy prayer to answer. So he gets over there and lo and behold, here comes Rebecca and there’s several good things about it. Number one, she’s pretty.

That’s not a bad idea, amen, for a while. And she’s a virgin, okay, and Rebecca comes and Eliezer says to her, would you give me a drink of water? And she says, sure.

And while you’re drinking, let me draw water for your camels. Wow. Have you ever had God answer a prayer so specifically?

I hope you have. I hope you learn to pray because we like Eliezer. We don’t know what to do many, many times.

In fact, most of the time, I don’t know what to do. And I’m totally dependent on God answering prayer. And so, you know, he goes to their home.

Everything works out wonderful. And then in verse 27, there is a wonderful statement that I want us to think about, okay? Look at in verse 27.

Now this is after everything is worked out. He has found the wife for Isaac, Rebekah. She’s consented to go home with him and so forth, okay?

And look what Eliezer said. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of my master Abraham, who hath not left destitute my master. I, being in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my master’s brethren.

He’s not left destitute his mercy and his truth. Now, underline the words in there. I, being in the way, the Lord led me.

I being in the way the Lord led me. And sometimes if we’re not careful we’ll wonder how can I know for instance how can I know where I need to go to Bible college or if I need to go to Bible college. How can I know who I need to marry or if anyone will marry me okay.

Or, you know, how can I know where I need to live? How can I know what kind of ministry I need to do? How can I know?

And Eliezer made this statement, I being in the way, I being in the way, the Lord led me. You think about that. The way that we can know God’s leadership.

And by the way, we don’t need to know what God wants us to do five years from now. Okay? None of us may be here five years from now.

We all may be in heaven. That’s a good idea. Amen?

But we need to know that today we are where God wants us to be. I being in the way the Lord led me. So things begin to happen in my life.

I had not been saved, but about three weeks until Bill Noel, the leader of the Youth for Christ there in Nortonville, he said, Don, I want you to lead the testimony meeting. And I said, I don’t even know what a testimony meeting is, okay? Well, I’ll tell you, okay.

And then first thing you know, I got baptized. The pastor began to give me jobs in the church and so forth. And so little by little, I began to serve the Lord in the best way that I could.

And so I look back over all of these years, 71 years of being saved. That’s a long time, amen. I never will forget the first thing that I thought the night I got saved was, this is wonderful.

And by the way, it’s more wonderful today than it was 71 years ago. You know what my next thought was? I sure wish my dad was saved.

My dad drank a lot, gambled a lot, all those things and so forth. Did what sinners do, okay? And it was several years later that I had the opportunity to see my dad trust Jesus Christ as his Lord and as his Savior.

But God began to do some great and wonderful things in my life. I remember practicing basketball one day and looking at the gym door, and there were two girls standing in the doorway. And one of them was my cousin, Connie Love, and the other one I had no idea who she was.

But I took one look at her, and I thought, wow, where has she been all my 16 years? But it was a beautiful little brunette standing there. And I thought, wow, I’d like to get to know her.

To make a real long story short, I did, and we were married 65 years before she went to heaven, okay? But God began to do some wonderful things for me, you know, one step at a time. Virginia and I got married.

We moved to northern Indiana in 1954, Thanksgiving night in 1954, at the Black Oak Baptist Church in Gary, Indiana, I made a commitment to be a preacher. I will never forget making this statement to Brother Durwood Humble, who was doing altar work. Brother Humble, I know God has called me to preach, but I don’t see how in the world I could be a preacher.

And Brother Humble said to me, he said, Don, how did you get saved? I got saved by the grace of God. okay if you’re going to be a preacher you’ll have to do it by the grace of God that was good advice in 1954 and that’s good advice in 2020 okay if we’re going to do anything like that it’s going to have to be by the grace of God

by the way young ladies three weeks after I made that commitment my wife Virginia went forward service. And she did not make a commitment to be a preacher. Now, she was a good preacher.

And she had a very difficult subject to preach to all the time. But here was a commitment she made. And I would challenge young ladies, okay?

Here’s a commitment that she made. She said, since God has called on to be a preacher, I want to be the best wife that I can be so he can be all that God wants him to be. At the celebration of her life, I never will forget the fact that I thought if anyone ever kept a commitment, it was that commitment.

Everything God ever led me to do, anywhere God ever led me to go, she was right with me. Not just tagging along, but totally involved in everything. So we quit our job up north and went back to Bible college.

And even before I got enrolled in Bible college, two rural churches called me as their pastor. and I never will forget I never heard of a pulpit committee Virginia and I were sitting in our living room one night one Sunday afternoon and three men all dressed up came, knocked on the door they said are you Don Sisk and I said yes sir we are from the Johnson Island Baptist Church

and a brother guest has told us that you’re a good preacher and we’d like you to come preach for us we don’t have a pastor and I thought, well, okay, I’ll be glad to preach anywhere, okay? So I went, and they called me as pastor, and I didn’t know any reason why I shouldn’t. There was a lot of reasons why I shouldn’t, but I didn’t know them then, okay?

But anyway, I became the pastor, and then a few weeks later, I was preaching in another meeting, and they just had church on first and third Sunday. The other church had church on second and fourth Sunday. On the fifth Sunday, I didn’t go to church, okay?

No, I did, but I wasn’t preaching. But even before I started Bible school, I was pastoring two churches, okay? Pastoring two churches, working at a service station, driving 40 miles to and from school and so forth.

And back in those days, I thought, you know, one day I’m going to have a lot more spare time. I’m 87 years old. I don’t know when that day’s going to come.

Okay. Anyway, we had been pastoring in Kentucky for a good while. And then God began to deal with our heart about the mission field.

And in 1964, we were accepted by BIMI as missionaries to Japan. And then in February of 1965, we went to Japan. And we’ve seen God do some great and wonderful things.

Churches established, you know. Kansai Independent Baptist Bible School with literally hundreds of young men and young women that have been trained for the ministry. And, you know, I look back over all of those years and I like Eliezer can make this statement.

I being in the way, the Lord led me. It’s that simple. No real signs from heaven about this or that.

Just I being in the way, the Lord led me. How do you get in the way? How do you get in the way?

And I’ll leave you with four simple things. Number one, you get in the way by being sure that you are a born-again child of God. If you’re not sure that you’re saved and going to heaven, don’t let anything in the world, don’t let your pride, don’t let anything in the world keep you from making that most important commitment of your life, to be sure that you’re saved and going to heaven.

You’re not trusting in your mother’s and your dad’s religion. You are not trusting in baptism or the Lord’s Supper or things you do, but you have come to the realization that you are a sinner and that if you died in your sin, you’d go to hell. And in simple childlike faith, You trust Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

So are you saved? Now, if you’re not saved, naturally, you’re not going to know the daily leadership of the Lord. Then there’s a matter of being separated.

Separated from sin and separated to God. It has both a negative and a positive. In other words, we’re not just separated from something, but we’re separated to something.

Remember it said of the children of Israel that he brought them out that he might bring them in. In other words, I am separated from the world. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.

In other words, all of those things that the world stands for. We have to be separated from that. And then we have to be submissive.

Just wherever you’re at to be submissive. Submissive to your parents. You say, well, my parents are dumb.

All parents are dumb until you get grown. And then when you get to be parents, you’ll realize how smart they were, okay? But submissive to your Christian leaders and so forth.

Submissive. Submissive is a good word. It’s not a bad word at all.

And then you have to be serving. Not only do you have to be a preacher, not only do you have to be a missionary, doesn’t mean you have to be in a particular position and so forth, but you have to be doing something. See, God has something for every one of us to do.

So I can look back over 71 years of being saved and 64 years of preaching the gospel, pastoring churches, being a missionary. We’ve been in missions now for 56 years. And I can just say, dear God, I thank you that you counted me faithful, putting me in the ministry.

Don’t neglect the ministry. Don’t run from the ministry. If God calls you to the ministry, and he calls you to every one of us to do some kind of ministry, then rather than running from it, we need to run to it.

So as I look back over all of those years, they’re not all been easy naturally. God didn’t say they’d be easy, okay? He didn’t promise us a smooth journey, just a safe landing.

But everywhere I go, they say to me, how was the trip? And I said, it’s good. I landed safely.

Amen. But he promised us to be with us all the way, never to leave us in our first section. I being in the way, the Lord led me.

Dear God, thank you for counting me faithful, putting me in the ministry. By the way, he’ll do that same thing for you.